Autohuur: Alamo (1)

[mattrob]

Mijn broertje zit sinds gisteren voor 2 weken in Orlando. Hij heeft zijn auto gehuurd via usareisen.de, gewoon de goedkoopste variant (kreeg overigens een Caliber mee, daar was hij heel happy mee).

Aan de balie bij Alamo kreeg hij het volgende voorgelegd. Hij kon voor $ 5 per dag de tolpoortjes afkopen en dan via EZPass in 1 keer doorrijden. Oftewel voor 70 dollar hoefde hij nergens (in Florida neem ik aan) tol te betalen. Hij gaat namelijk helemaal naar de Keys, dus hij heeft het gedaan.

Ik had hier nog nooit van gehoord. Wel hoorde ik laatst dat je een EZPass apparaat kon nemen bij je huurauto of zo. Maar dan wordt de tol (met korting) gewoon afgeschreven van je prepaid achtige kaart, dacht ik. Dit was nieuw voor mij.

De vrouw van Alamo beweerde dat het al 8 dollar kostte om van MCO naar WDW te komen. Dat leek mij grote onzin, volgens mij kost het net een dollar of zo :-k (is alweer 2,5 jaar geleden voor mij) ?

Goed, mijn conclusie was dat hij redelijk afgezet was. Hij vond dat alleen erg, als er gewoon glashard tegen hem gelogen was bij Alamo, over die 8 dollar. Maar ja, of je er echt iets mee opschiet .... Was wel makkelijk zei hij, dat hij gewoon door kon rijden bij de tolpoortjes, maar voor $ 80 zou ik het toch niet gedaan hebben ......[-(

Jullie ervaringen hiermee ?

[Michael66]

Ik heb hierover een jaartje of zo geleden een vraag gesteld aan Alamo en Sun Pass, of het mogelijk was de Sun Pass voor toeristen beschikbaar te maken. Gingen ze over nadenken.

Wat jij nu weergeeft lijkt meer op toeristen-uitperserij .... zal toch niet de bedoeling zijn?!? of toch wel?

Ga ik maar weer eens over mailen ...!

[mattrob]

Vreemde actie inderdaad van Alamo, kunnen ze mooi toeristen weer wat extra dollars afpersen .... Het afkopen van tol lijkt me zowiezo raar, Alamo zal dat nooit doen als ze er verlies op draaien, ik vraag me af of Alamo dit ook echt 'afkoopt' met de tolweg instanties (hoe ze ook mogen heten). Ik denk niet dat zoiets kan.

[Njit]

Het kan dus wel en het is zelfs officieel aangekondigd: http://www.automotive.com/features/9...499/index.html

Rental Cars Won't Need Transponders to Travel Through Sunpass Lanes - Auto News from September 27, 2007

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Many rental car customers traveling on Florida's toll roads and bridges are now able to utilize 'SunPass Only' lanes to pay their tolls, even without a SunPass transponder, thanks to a pair of innovative programs announced by Turnpike officials this week.
Rental car customers in Central Florida also can use the EPass lanes on toll roads operated by the Orlando- Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA), and will soon be able to use the LeeWay toll lanes in Lee County.
Florida's Turnpike Enterprise has entered into contractual agreements with American Traffic Solutions and Rent A Toll, Ltd. to administer a program which utilizes license plate information to identify rental vehicles and electronically collect the toll.
American Traffic Solutions is currently offering its PlatePass(R) cashless toll payment service to rental car customers using vehicles rented from Avis, Budget, and Hertz. Rent A Toll will soon offer its Pass24 service to Dollar and Thrifty rental customers.
Enterprise, Alamo, and National have yet to sign up for the new rental car program but Turnpike officials are hopeful that they too will soon be part of the program.
The program became operational at all Avis, Budget and Hertz locations statewide on Sept. 24. Every Hertz, Avis and Budget vehicle has been enrolled in the PlatePass(R)system, regardless of the rental location. Vehicles rented in other states can travel to Florida and utilize the PlatePass(R) toll payment system. Dollar and Thrifty will follow in October.
Under the terms of the agreement with American Traffic Solutions, customers who rent cars from Avis, Budget and Hertz will pay daily fees of $2.00 to $2.50 plus actual toll usage. Every vehicle is pre-enrolled and no advanced commitment or contract is required for vehicle renters utilizing these agencies. The toll charges will be automatically paid by PlatePass(R) electronically. Charges will be billed to the renter's credit card utilized to rent the vehicle. The daily fee for PlatePass(R) will only apply for days when toll roads are actually used.

Under the Rent A Toll Pass24 pre-paid toll service with Dollar and Thrifty, customers will enjoy unlimited toll usage for a flat daily fee of $5.95 per rental day, or $27.95 weekly. All toll charges are included in the daily or weekly fee.

"This is exciting news," said Turnpike Chief Executive Officer Jim Ely. "This opens up the SunPass program and the benefits of electronic tolling to thousands more vehicles."

en hier: http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3155

Florida's SunPass goes video toll with five major rental car companies

Posted Thu, 2007-09-27 21:08

Florida will soon have the nation's largest video toll program with two statewide rental car deals and others on the way. Florida Turnpike Enterprise which runs the state's SunPass transponder account system today announced contract agreements with American Traffic Solutions which is acting on behalf of Avis, Budget and Hertz and with Rent A Toll acting for Dollar and Thrifty. The Turnpike announcement, the first for rental car video tolls throughout a heavily tolled state, says officials are hopeful of reaching agreement shortly for Enterprise, Alamo and National to join in video tolling too.

Under the agreement the agency companies - in this case ATS and Rent A Toll - will supply the Sunpass agency with constantly updated lists of license plate numbers and other details of vehicles in the rental car fleets that are eligible for video billing. The Sunpass system's video enforcement cameras will record the passes of rental cars under their gantries. With potential violators' number plates run against the list of eligible vehicles the rental car users will be billed the tolls instead of getting violation notices.

Different billing styles
Under agreements between video toll agencies (ATS and Rent A Toll) and their rental car clients car renters are charged tolls that cover toll costs plus a margin for other costs and profit. ATS PlatePass bills renters for actual tolls plus a daily fee, while Rent A Toll under their branded Pass24 charges a larger flat daily fee regardless of toll charges incurred.

Both ATS and Rent A Toll pioneered their video tolling in Houston and Dallas - on the Harris County and North Texas Tollway systems.
Highway Toll Administration LLC which claims to be the largest and most long established rental car toller - it issues E-ZPass transponders through much of the northeast and mid-Atlantic states - stood aside in Florida. Their president David Centner told us the situation there is "very fluid" and they prefer to wait until things settle out.
He is referring to the rebuild of Florida's toll system being undertaken by Raytheon, the high likelihood of a transition to low cost sticker tags, and the possibility that the state will abolish cash collection.
Centner thinks there may be some confusion as to where video tolling will work in Florida and some disappointment.
It works for rental cars going through SunPass-Only lanes. In mixed mode lanes where SunPass transponders work along with cash collection there will be no video toll. Rental car customers will have to pay cash.

The agreements with the Turnpike are "non-exclusive" so others can enter later if they can sell their services to rental car companies, Centner says.
For now American Traffic Solutions (ATS) with Avis, Budget and Hertz are the clear leader in Florida. They started PlatePass a few days ago - Sept 24 - for those company's vehicles statewide and also for their vehicles from out of state but traveling on Florida tollroads. Jim Tuton of ATS says that with whole national fleets of three rental cars in their database vehicles moving from one state to another are always "enabled" for customers to use their service.

Nearly Florida-wide
SunPass covers not only the Florida Turnpike tollroads but also the tollroads of Tampa and Miami-Dade. The E-Pass system of the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority is doing PlatePass and Pass24 video tolling too.

The separate LeeWay electronic toll system on toll bridges in Lee County (Fort Myers on the west coast) is not yet covered, but will be joining soon.

Rent A Toll on behalf of Dollar and Thrifty will be offering video toll service in the Orlando area from October 7 and through the rest of Florida by the end of October, they say.

ATS PlatePass will enrol all vehicles of the three rental car companies (Avis, Budget, Hertz) automatically. PlatePass will bill the car renters' credit cards by the amount of tolls plus a daily fee of $2.00 to $2.50 levied on days when a toll charge is incurred by the car renter.

Rent A Toll's Pass24 on Dollar and Thrify cars will provide coverage of unlimited tolls for a flat daily fee of $5.95 or a weekly $27.95 for the time the car is rented.

Ely says "great news"
Jim Ely chief executive at Florida's Turnpike Enterprise is quoted as saying the car rental agreements are "exciting news" since they will bring the benefits of electronic tolling to thousands more vehicles. What he doesn't say there is they also reduce toll operators losses from unpaid tolls.

Tollroads in Florida are rapidly reducing the role of cash toll collection. Miami Dade Expressway Authority has a program for phasing out cash collection over the next several years. The Turnpike Enterprise is making all its new toll points transponder-only. Both the Turnpike and Orlando are converting barrier plazas to highway speed open road tolling through the middle.

Tampa toll authority have no cash collection on their new reversible elevated express express lanes in the Crosstown Expressway and already do video tolling there for normal customers.

SunPass has 3.5m transponders in use and about 2.5m accounts, and does 64% of toll transactions to 36% cash.

Rental car companies say most customers love the convenience of being covered for tolls automatically.


PlatePass plans
Jim Tuton of ATS PlatePass says they have been working with E-470 to do video tolling for rental cars on the Denver CO system. He's hopeful they will be operational by the time the ski season starts.
In a year he predicts video tolling will be far more commonplace: "Once people see how well it works, it's likely to be rapidly taken up."

Once video tolling is well established with rental cars and the brand is known, Tuton hopes to persuade tollers to allow video tolling to be extended to the general public.
"We could open up PlatePass to the general public so they could log in by telephone with voice prompts or on the web. They'd give us their license plate number and credit card, and that would be it. We'd pay the tolls for that car and they could use the open road toll lanes. They could enrol and pay tolls on the road."

[liesken]

Hallo,

Huurde iemand hier op het forum ooit al een standaard SUV wagen bij alamo? Waren jullie tevreden of was het de extra kost niet waard?
Welke types SUV's kan je dan huren?

Groetjes Liesbet

[Dr. Phlox]

Wij hebben dit jaar voor het eerst een standaard SUV bij Alamo gehuurt. Kan er verder niet veel over vertellen (eerste maal). Moet ook nog plaats vinden.
Heb (Hoop) gekozen voor de Chevrolet Trailblazer. Leek me ruim zat voor 5 personen (2 Volw, 2 tieners en 1 van 6 jaar)
Grz
Ton

[Ta2 Gerrit]

Wij hebben al een aantal keren een standard SUV (via via) bij Alamo gehuurd, tot volle tevredenheid.
Meestal staan er een aantal Trailblazers in de SUV rij op MCO maar één keer hebben we genoegen moeten nemen met een Toyota 4Runner, die ook niet echt verkeerd is.
Er waren toen geen Chevy's voorradig en we hadden geen zin om te wachten. Er stonden ook nog een aantal pick-ups in die rij, maar zo gek kon ik de vrouw niet krijgen. Dus dan maar op z'n Japans, en die beviel ook prima.

[canam]

De gunstigste auto is de Chevrolet Equinox.
Is bijna nooit daar en dan kun je een grotere uitzoeken.
Iedereen die op deze manier boekt is tevreden.
Zie Algemeen Autohuren

Canam

[Petr@]

Wij hebben twee maal een standaard SUV gehuurd, een maal een Buick uitgezocht en de laatste keer in Florida een Toyota4Runner.
Absoluut genoeg ruimte en het rijdt echt super! Ik huur nooit meer iets anders...

[Njit]

Even een overzichtje:



(en uiteraard geld hiervoor 'Or similair')